In Preparation For Christmas Today I Will.....

[onlyhereforthechristmaschat]

...clean out the freezer and make a meal plan to use everything up before December.

I hope you don't mind me starting this thread this year @beautifulsunflowers I absolutely loved this last year. I watched from afar and followed along doing one thing everyday to spread the cost, time, energy and Christmas cheer throughout November and December.

What is one thing you plan to do today to get organised?

Oh that's a point I need to pick up my delivering joy tags from Dunelm today.
Thanks for the reminder.
I am looking forward to in a couple of years when my daughter is older taking her to do one of these.
I think for those who can afford to do it it's an important thing for the community.

Today I am creating the shopping list for Christmas dinner along with the week before and after.
This means doing the meal plan, but at least this way I can ensure I am not making any last minute dashes to the shops (barring delivery failures, in which case all bets are off!)

I am just about to finish off wrapping the advent calendar fillers, and make a start on the girls' stocking fillers 😊

I will don my Christmas print dress (if it still fits haha) and attend my DD first Christmas market!

Sit down with the calendar & work out when's best to ice and decorate the cakes - one needs to be delivered over the first week of December ideally.

Also, deep clean dd2's room while she's out. Again, not strictly Christmas but in desperate need & I like to do the whole house at this time of year.

I have spent a happy couple of hours creating my Amazon wishlist, and have sent it to someone who asked for it.

All the bought gifts are wrapped and labelled with home made labels and I'm just settling down with a mid-morning coffee and a Christmas magazine.

I was out and about and spotted the gifts that the little boys from the charity gifting wanted so I picked them up 🙂 later DH is taking eldest DC out so I'm going to go through my christmas recipes and start putting some bits into next week's online shop.

Today I placed an order for a box of cinnamon buns to drop off to my DS creche in December, as a thank you to the workers. We also started hanging the stair garland, which felt a little early, but we have two small kiddos and can only decorate in 5 minute bursts. Plus I picked out the desserts for Christmas dinner from the local farm shop menu.

I also asked my mum if she wanted to pop in to the shops on Monday with me, to look for magical (and hopefully cheap!) wrapping paper.

I got the books off DS's lists today. The list is getting shorter by the day.

This morning I bought each of my DC a gift and decided on DD2's last gift.

I've written a list of stocking fillers for my dad, and begun the crochet church for my thread village.

I organized an extended family Christmas brunch for the weekend before Christmas. Plus ordered a personalized stocking for my newest arrival, and for my mum. Finally realized that over all the years, I've never seen her have a stocking! She always did amazing ones for us as children so I'd like to do a nice one for her this year.

Today I deep cleaned the soft furnishings, last step in having house ready for the trees to go up.

I bought DH some posh foodie bits for his stocking, sorted DD's presents and finalised the food shop order(s). Also had a festive coffee (pret) and sandwich (M&S), not strictly prep but enjoyable!!!

The other night I put up my outside Christmas lantern and winter reef. Tonight I put up my Christmas outside standing light. I ordered Christmas PJ's yesterday. I also told DH he needs to take the kids out this weekend for the afternoon so I can wrap as I am not sitting up till midnight wrapping 3 or 4 nights in December like last year.

I bought mince pies, they won't last til Christmas . Sorry but I've only bought 5 things so far

Today I have collected one order from Argos. My other was supposed to be ready today too but wasn't there when I went (email came through the minute I got back in the house 😂) so that can be tomorrows job (if it isn't too snowy)

I have also put lots of photos on a memory stick and tested DHs digital photo frame as it was second hand (like new)

I went decoration & wrapping paper shopping with my mum & baby, which was so very lovely. Put some bows on the stair garland as today's 5 minutes of decorating. If I get time after the kids are in bed, I'm going to wrap a cardboard box in paper to make a December first box, to pop their pj's and advent calendars in too.

Bought the last stocking fillers at TKMaxx and am done.
Now to resist the Twitch

Started to plan meals and drinks for Christmas Eve/ Christmas day /Boxing day. I seem to be mainly planning the alcohol 😂

I started my wrapping today done the big house clean last week hoping to get all wrapping done this week around the baby x

I'm heading to the shops today and intend to pick up all the toys and stocking fillers. There will only be 1 thing left on the santa lists after that 🤞

Today I will be watching 'Hot Frosty' while I write the Christmas cards for abroad. Last posting dates are looming next week!

Royal Mail International Standard

Tuesday 26/11 Africa, Asia, Australia, Caribbean, Central and South America, China (People's Republic), Far and Middle East, New Zealand

Wednesday 27/11 Cyprus, Malta, Portugal, Spain

Thursday 28/11 Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Eastern Europe (except Czech Republic and Poland), France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey

Friday 29/11 Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Poland, Sweden, USA

Checked dd2's presents from dd1 are all intact & as they should be (with dd, not doing it for her at her age!). Decided with dd2 when we'll sit down and order her gift for dd1 (payday...bye bye wages 👋).

Wrapped final advent calendar surprises.

Added marzipan for cakes to my shopping list again 😋

Moved stack of random, currently unused, craft items upstairs out of living room. Put away non festive crochet until my Christmas village is complete!

Quite productive today!

Thanks to a PP writing it, I booked my grocery deliveries for December. Also started writing the ingredients list for Christmas dinner, so I can spread the cost of any extras out across a few shops.

Plus picked up chocolate lollies & hazelnut praline marzipan to throw in stockings. The marzipan will need to be replaced before Christmas - delicious. 🙈